Avalanche highlights of the week
Avalanche Crypto Event Woos 3.5K to Barcelona With Late Parties, Late Starts, Long Lines
With the video art shows, there’s plenty of tapas to go around, and the actual festivities don’t start until noon. Nobody seems to be concerned about the AVAX token’s decrease this year.
According to organizers, the Avalanche blockchain conference in Barcelona, Spain, drew over 3,500 people who paid up to $600 each, indicating that in-person bitcoin events are becoming more popular as the coronavirus fades.
In comparison, roughly 500 people attended an Avalanche event organized in Portugal last year in conjunction with a larger business convention. The Barcelona event was described as the first comprehensive conference dedicated to the Avalanche blockchain, according to organizers.
Despite a 24 percent dip in the price of its native token AVAX this year, the Avalanche Summit’s popularity may reflect persistent interest in one of last year’s hottest blockchain initiatives. The Avalanche conference attracted more than 2,000 people, compared to 2,000 who attended a large event in Lisbon last year for Solana, a competing blockchain.
Sean Farrell, the head of digital-asset strategy at FundStrat, an independent investment research firm based in New York, said he was “impressed with the turnout and overall excitement” during the four-day event.
“I sensed a significant focus from developers on expanding up Avalanche’s network ecosystem in the next months,” Farrell said. “Despite most asset prices being well below all-time highs, there was a clear optimism and hunger to continue investing and building on Avalanche.”
As coronavirus caseloads decline and remote working becomes more common, the Avalanche Summit may mark the return of crypto conferences as a crucial component of the industry workflow, giving in-person interactions for the first time in years.
Last month, ETHDenver, an Ethereum-focused conference, brought roughly 8,500 in-person attendees to a site in Colorado’s mountainous state. (Full disclosure: CoinDesk is having its own cryptocurrency conference in June in Austin, Texas.)
Avalanche Announces New ‘Core’ Wallet, Bitcoin Bridge at AVAX Summit
Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem will benefit from the two product improvements.
BARCELONA, SPAIN — Avalanche has announced the debut of its own wallet application, Core, as well as the addition of Bitcoin bridging capability, both targeted at improving the user experience and bringing more assets into the Avalanche ecosystem.
To the delight of conference attendees, Ava Labs Head of Product Nick Mussallem made the announcement on Tuesday at the Avalanche Summit in Barcelona, Spain.
Ava Labs is a group dedicated to the advancement of the Avalanche blockchain.
“Core is much more than a wallet. In a statement, Mussallem stated, “It’s a tailored Web3 operating system that blends secure wallet architecture with technology not found in any other wallet.” It comes after ConsenSys — the parent firm of MetaMask, the most popular Ethereum wallet (through which many users interact with Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains like Avalanche) — raised $7 billion in its current fundraising round.
Users of the Core wallet will be able to communicate directly with decentralized applications (dapps) on the Avalanche blockchain thanks to native Avalanche bridging features. To get their assets onto the Avalanche blockchain, MetaMask users had to employ an Ethereum-Avalanche bridge previously.
Bridges are programs that allow users to move assets from one blockchain to another, which is a time-consuming and vulnerable operation.
The Avalanche Bridge has become the most popular Ethereum-connected bridge, with over $6 billion in total value locked in as decentralized finance (DeFi) usage has expanded on Avalanche (TVL). Since its inception in July 2021, the bridge has permitted the use of over $43 billion in assets between Avalanche and Ethereum, according to Avalanche.
What Is the Impact for Anchor Having sAVAX as Collateral?
Anchor now accepts sAVAX as a form of security. So, how does this affect Anchor Protocol?
Anchor Protocol debuted on Avalanche in mid-March. However, as of March 20th, staked AVAX (sAVAX) can be used as collateral on Anchor. Despite this, the value of Anchor’s token, ANC, has fallen 31.3 percent in the previous 14 days. TVL on Anchor, on the other hand, has climbed by $1.9 billion in the last 14 days.
On UST, Anchor already pays 19.5 percent APY. In addition, LUNA, Anchor’s native cryptocurrency, is currently on a campaign to purchase $10 billion in Bitcoin to supplement its reserves. But what does this mean for Anchor and sAVAX? The impact of sAVAX on Anchor is discussed in this article. Let’s begin by learning how to incorporate it into the DeFi protocol.
How Can You Add sAVAX as Collateral on Anchor?
For sAVAX, we must stake AVAX. Benqi is a good place to do it. Avalanche is used to build this liquid staking mechanism. Trader Joe’s, on the other hand, could be able to provide slightly better deals. As a result, comparing rates could be beneficial.
For this example, however, we will use Benqi. You’ll need to link MetaMask to Benqi immediately. Change AVAX to sAVAX now. sAVAX will be added to your wallet as a result of this.
We’ll now navigate to the Anchor web app. Here you will find a direct link on the Anchor Protocol to connect to the Terra blockchain. All you have to do is switch networks in the top-right area of Anchor’s UI.
This will place us on the xAnchor variant of Anchor, which is located within Avalanche. After you’ve connected your MetaMask, go to the “borrow” page. When you don’t see a sAVAX tab, it can be puzzling, however the wasAVAX tab functions quite well on this website. Wrapped wormholeAVAX is what this signifies.
You can now enter the amount of your sAVAX loan. Your borrow utilization should not exceed 75% after hitting the borrow button.
As a result, wormholeUST has been added to your wallet in the same amount as the amount you borrowed. You’ve successfully borrowed cross-chain. UST with sAVAX as security.
Avalanche launches $100 million creator fund with Grimes and web3 platform Op3n
With a $100 million creator fund, Ethereum challenger Avalanche makes a cultural play by launching projects on the network that are only available through social media platform Op3n.
The fund will be launched with Grimes’ plans for a “intergalactic childrens’ metaverse book,” followed by a collaboration on Ava Max’s new music video.
As the blockchain network’s visibility develops among non-crypto natives, the Avalanche Foundation and web3 social media platform Op3n launched a $100 million program for creatives to build projects on Avalanche.
The first of these funded projects, dubbed the Culture Catalyst initiative and paid out in the network’s native token AVAX, will go to singer Grimes.
The singer, who has already sold $6 million in NFTs, is working on a “intergalactic childrens’ metaverse novel” that she believes will follow in the footsteps of Studio Ghibli’s acclaimed film My Neighbor Totoro.
On Friday, she was scheduled to make the announcement by videolink at the Avalanche Summit in Barcelona.
In an interview, founder Jaeson Ma indicated that this project, as well as others to come, will be available exclusively on the self-described “web3 WeChat” Op3n. On Ava Max’s future music video, the platform will cooperate with her.
Op3n claims to be an app that makes it simple for creators to leverage web3 technology to communicate with followers, with a user interface similar to TikTok. Users choose a creator’s profile and link their wallet to purchase an NFT, which grants access to additional content to the fan. Galaxy Interactive and BRV Capital Management sponsored a $10 million seed round for the company.
Ma was a co-founder of 88rising, a music label that enabled Asian artists including Joji, Rich Brian, and Keith Ape get recognition in the United States. He now aims to achieve the same for NFT adoption in the mainstream.
He remarked over the phone, “I’ve been in this music, movie, entertainment, media arena for 20 years.” “So it’s taking use of those connections and exposing NFTs to Hollywood and the music industry.”
About Avalanche
Avalanche is a proof-of-stake blockchain with smart contract capability that is decentralized and open-source. The platform’s native cryptocurrency is AVAX.
